Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Van Dyke Jigsaw Puzzle

Finally after 6 weeks I started putting together my research on the African American Van Dykes. Not that I researched that long it was tough squeezing in Tituses and Van Dykes at the same time. Turns out what little I got has them related anyway. The main conclusion I have come to is that once they were released the black Van Dykes seemed to have settled in Franklin Township on both sides Franklin and South Brunswick. To make matters more confusing Van Dykes lived in Montgomery (Harlingen Reformed Church) Franklin and South Brunswick (Six Mile Run Church) holding properties in all three areas and in some cases property stretching into the three areas. I researched the Harlingen Reformed Church, State Archives, Rutgers Library, Freehold's Monmouth County Historical Society and the Administrations building in New Brunswick for wills and deeds. Nothing but tiny tidbits of information and worse yet nothing to confirm the existence of the slave cemetery at Fresh Ponds. I was able to confirm two Black Van Dykes in South Brunswick, Hattie Van Dyke (died around 1946) who's sister Bertha Ten Broeck, is related to the wife of Thomas Titus and is buried in Kendall Park. Libbie Van Dyke lived across the street from Six Mile Run Church on the South Brunswick side of 27 and I suspect is actually Eliza Van Dyke (cannot prove it with certainty) who shows on a hand written map from 1896 of this area. There are several other black Van Dykes in Franklin census records and also in Hillsborough census records. (Can you tell I went DEEP!) Let's break it all down in simple terms. No one ever bothered to document these people except for some census records. The only way I will be able to get further is to find living relatives, but that puts me back into the same issue. Proof I need documented proof on these people. I even discovered a family bible of the Van Dykes given to a Rev J Addison Henry of Philadelphia (Could he have served in Cranbury Presbyterian HELP ME OUT Jean)by Catharine Rue. It only lists the whites in the family although it was neat to become aware of it's existence. What I need is a family bible from the black Van Dykes with where everyone was buried, talk about dreaming large...

3 comments:

Jean said...

J. Addison Henry was involved with Princeton Seminary, so there is some connection, but I don't think he was a pastor there. I will check, though.

Here is an interesting page on the church records: Records of First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury 1744-1891

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jdevlin/nj/cranbury_nj_presb_memb.htm

Jean said...

Records of First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury 1744-1891

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jdevlin/
nj/cranbury_nj_presb_memb.htm

Anonymous said...

check Morgan's History of the NJ Conference. It's about the AME church in NJ. There is mention of VanDykes as members of an AME church in Middlebush. Also mention of Raddles Timbrooks and Beekman at same church--probably all related to the Titus family. I found the above at www.NJstatelib/NJ. Wish I oould have been at the Titus dedication. You have done a super job. Hope to meet you sometime soon.